will demonstrate how image and information management solutions help customers lower healthcare costs, while improving the level of service offered to other providers and patients. These innovative solutions will be on display in booth 825 at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) in Orlando from June 7-10, 2012. Siemens is demonstrating significant updates to the syngo Workflow radiology information system (RIS) as well as syngo®.via(1), for advanced visualization, syngo.plaza, the agile picture archiving and communications system (PACS), and syngo Dynamics, Siemens cardiovascular imaging and information system (CVIS). In particular, Siemens recently announced the availability of the syngo Workflow Cloud Solution.(2) This private cloud deployment option can help healthcare providers reduce the ongoing capital expenditure of maintaining on-site hardware for this departmental scheduling and report delivery solution. Siemens will also demonstrate mobile options for the imaging IT portfolio on a selection of mobile tablets and devices.(3) Bringing clinical users advanced functionality and new approaches to optimize the total cost of ownership are key objectives of Agenda 2013, a two-year global initiative to further strengthen the healthcare sector’s innovative solutions.

The syngo Workflow RIS provides advanced radiology workflow applications, enabled through syngo portals, which help drive efficiency from order entry to image and report distribution. Siemens can now host the RIS from its private, medical-grade Healthcare Computing Center to help customers better predict costs and reduce capital expenditures. As such, the private cloud solution for syngo Workflow provides a more predictable cost environment — particularly for hospitals already hosting other elements of their health information technology solutions in the cloud. The first Siemens customer to deploy this option is The Chester County Hospital and Health System, West Chester, Pa.

“The transition to cloud computing was smooth,” said Paul Morris Jr., RIS Administrator, Chester County Hospital and Health System. “We’ve already seen the cloud option minimize down time, with no loss of data, during a recent, winter power outage. Without the cloud option, it would have taken significantly longer to come back up.”

In addition to the private cloud deployment option, the latest version (VA32A) of syngo Workflow features a new technologist portal along with enhancements to syngo Portal Radiologist and syngo Voice. The radiologist reporting solution in syngo Portal Radiologist now provides advanced academic workflow support with resident workflow and advanced procedure protocoling capabilities. In addition, the new version features improved emergency department and interrupt workflows, along with enhanced worklist filtering and sorting capabilities. syngo Portal Technologist touts a new Web-based application for the radiology technologist. With syngo Portal Technologist, the technologist is able to track patients, add, revise and cancel procedures, and organize workload through worklists and monitors. Moreover, with access to valuable patient information such as allergies, order requisitions, protocols, history and more, the technologist can perform their core tasks right from one application. syngo Workflow also offers key enhancements to syngo Voice by providing the ability to pre-populate a radiologist’s report with information that has already been captured, such as radiation dose information or ultrasound measurements. Doing so without additional clicks or dictation by the radiologist creates an opportunity for time savings and improved accuracy during report creation.

Siemens also unveiled syngo Workflow Mobile(3), which delivers RIS capabilities for technologists and radiologists to a variety of mobile devices. Technologists can access syngo Portal Technologist on a mobile tablet, allowing them to focus on patient care and giving them the ability to more easily capture patient and study information. With syngo Portal Radiologist available on a mobile tablet, radiologists can sign-off on their radiology reports with just a few clicks and have the same type of access to their reports as they would to their emails.

Enhancements to Siemens advanced visualization, agile PACS and CVISAlso at SIIM, Siemens will showcase syngo.via (VA11), which is Siemens advanced visualization software, providing support for increased reading efficiency to assist with reducing turnaround time and lowering costs. The latest offering expands the number of clinical applications and provides broader multimodality support across radiology, nuclear medicine, surgery, oncology, and cardiology environments.(1) In addition, syngo.via provides workflows that can be tailored to numerous medical indications by integrating disease-specific applications. Each application provides case preparation, structured case navigation, and disease orientation.

Siemens will also spotlight syngo.plaza, the agile PACS for clinical routine, offering 2D, 3D and 4D reading in one place. With more than 200 installations already in clinical production worldwide, the new version (VA20D) of syngo.plaza features increased loading performance and support of central application management(4) to reduce complexity and costs. Through case-specific reading and a wide application range, syngo.plaza supports users in efficiently reading complex multimodality cases. It allows a smooth transition between different applications and helps speed the reading workflow.

For cardiology, Siemens cardiovascular information system, syngo Dynamics, and syngo.via(1) together enable sounder decisions by providing unified reading and reporting; routine and advanced visualization; evidence-based structured reporting; efficient workflow; a holistic patient-centric view for pre-, intra- and post-procedure; robust analytics; universal anywhere, anytime access(3); and enterprise results distribution. Siemens also recently announced a syngo Dynamics Mobile(5) solution that allows cardiovascular imaging specialists to extend access to image and report review beyond the workstation to Apple® Internet-enabled devices such as Apple® iPad and Apple® iPhone that support Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari.(3) The syngo Dynamics Mobile user-friendly login and study list enables users to easily navigate through images and reports allowing for bedside review and consultation with healthcare providers and patients. Through the use of the smart technology interactive display, users of syngo Dynamics Mobile are empowered to view images and reports according to their personalized view.

(1) syngo.via can be used as a standalone device or together with a variety of syngo.via-based software options, which are medical devices in their own rights. Not all applications are commercially available in all countries. Please contact your local Siemens organization for further details.

(2) The private cloud deployment for syngo Workflow requires VA31A Service Pack 1 (SP1) or VA32A. syngo Workflow private cloud solution is only available in the United States.

(3) Prerequisites include: Requires access to the radiology or clinical network, applications deployed over the Citrix server or similar type of remote hosting server, DICOM compliance, meeting of minimum hardware requirements and adherence to local data security regulations.

(4) syngo.plaza VA20C or VA20D and Citrix XenApp 6.0 required.

(5) syngo Dynamics Mobile is not for diagnostic use. Please refer to your sales representative whether the product is available for your country.

Launched recently, Siemens Agenda 2013 program is a two-year global initiative to further strengthen the Healthcare Sector’s innovative power and competitiveness. Specific measures will be implemented in four fields of action: Innovation, Competitiveness, Regional Footprint, and People Development.

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world’s largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 51,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2011 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 12.5 billion euros and profit of around 1.3 billion euros. For further information please visit:
www.siemens.com/healthcare .

Paul Khunkhun, serving Southern California since 1998. Paul is the owner of MDIS. He is a Board Certified Ultrasound Sonographer with RDCS and RVT credentialing. He is also pending ICAEL accreditation.